We Accidentally Forgot to Talk About Education

Kwik Save, Gateway, Safeway, HyperValue... say any of those names out loud and you can practically smell the fluorescent lighting. We start by correcting our own questionable supermarket history before disappearing down a rabbit hole of UK retail nostalgia, value ranges, and how Aldi and Lidl quietly changed the way Britain shops.

Normally, this is the point where we'd introduce an education article, a list of dubious teaching advice, or some piece of corporate nonsense to pick apart. This week, we forget.

Instead, a classroom register somehow leads us into Esperanto, the invented world language that never quite conquered the globe, before we drift into BBC soap operas, Eldorado, and the theme tunes that have survived far longer than the programmes themselves. Along the way, we discuss composer Simon May and why a melody can transport you back thirty years faster than almost anything else.

We also talk about life behind the podcast: why we've revived the Ben and James Could Do Better blog, how we're trying to promote the show without becoming unbearable about it, and why the blog finally gives our postcard segment a proper home. This week's postcard features a surfing sun and a message that's probably more useful than most educational guidance documents: "Happiness comes in waves, it will find you again."

Naturally, things end with snacks. We compare supermarket copycat brands, debate Galaxy ice cream, discuss why own-brand crisps never quite get it right, and marvel at energy drink names that seem increasingly determined to sound dangerous. There's also a late-90s cautionary tale involving a "quad vod"—the kind of drink that leaves you able to remember the night perfectly but unable to look at Red Bull in quite the same way ever again.

In short, this is the episode where we accidentally forget to talk about education and somehow spend an hour discussing supermarkets, Esperanto, TV theme tunes, postcards, snacks, and nostalgia instead.

If that sounds like your sort of professional development, subscribe, share the show with a fellow nostalgia-head, and leave us a review.

Transcript

Supermarket Nostalgia And Corrections

0:18

And I have to correct an earlier podcast. Quick Save, I think, were bought, I believe, by Gateway. Gateway. No, you said that. We did say I know I said Safeway. Yeah, maybe. Gateway never made it. And I I want to give them their moment in the sunshine. I remember Gateway. Gateway. Yeah. Yeah. And then they became Morrison's. That's the journey. No, it's the same thing. Safeway became Morrison's. Quick Save became Gateway. Safeway became Morrison's. What happened to Gateway? I need to know our listeners. You haven't come with that information from fairly looking at your phone now. No, I I haven't. The the Welsh firm HyperValuValue. Oh, can you do the song? HyperValue Value. Takes me back. Now, I, while you're um looking up the story of Gatewave, Hyper Value Value, Hyper Value, it was just called Hyper Value, wasn't it? That's right, yeah. That the song was Hyper Value Value. Well, it was the value that you could get in Hyper Value. Yeah. Which was kind of given away in its name, wasn't it? Yeah, I mean that became I think that might have merged with pound stretchers at some point. I think they were taken over by one of the big boys. One of the big pound stores or something. But hyper value is where I used to go as a child in December to see Father Christmas. That was You went to Hyper Valley. Correct. I went to I saw a hyper. Not not because just to contrast this, my sister is um six and a half years my junior. I've got two sisters, but my my the youngest of my sisters is six years. And by the time she got to go and see Father Christmas, it was Harrod's in London. So I I went to the Hyper Value and she got now I I'm not saying that had any kind of bearing on how we turned out. I do remember getting the um getting a rainbow themed pencil case, pencil stationary set, a rainbow stationary set from the hyper value Father Christmas, which I don't know that I should have been that thrilled by. But I think I was quite happy with it. So let's I'm glad you got that off your chest. I d yeah, it's just a memory. It's not a particularly powerful one. But yeah, definitely. Hyper value in bridge end. As far as Quicksaves concerned, uh I mean, sadly it ultimately failed in 2007. Gosh, as recently as that. Yeah, due to a lethal combination of fierce competition, disastrous corporate takeovers, and severe mismanagement. Right. It could be any number of companies, couldn't it? Obviously, even having the plain bag with plain bags contained within it was not enough. Obviously, and they I mean I don't know how they could have got more aggressive than that, really. Mainstream supermarkets and AI here has put in brackets like Tesco and Asda, just in case we didn't know what a mainstream supermarket was. Their introduction of their value brands really sort of put the squeeze on Quicksave. And the foreign retailers like Aldi and Little obviously entering the market, and that was a big problem. Maybe they just really outpaced Quicksave's basic offering. We've got it wrong again. Summerfield was the merger. Summerfield. Spelt S-O-M-E-R Field. I remember Summerfield too, I do remember that. In fact, on a sort of an entirely unrelated note, once upon a time, way back, I think we're talking late 90s. Late 90s, yeah. I don't think it was, I don't think we'd hit the millennium. All the bugs, associated bugs, I had a little stab at performance poetry. Right. And you haven't got any for us, have you? No, I can't remember. I mean, it was all only I literally did it once, and I changed my name that night. I don't know why. I I I I performed under a pseudonym. And the pseudonym was James Summerfield. So there you go. Have you got any you could just just a line or two of performance poetry by James Summerfield? James Summerfield Performance Poetry. What was it? Do you know what? That might have to be for a future podcast, but I am happy to bring my bad poetry too. What sort of stuff was it on, though? Um no, well, it was more sort of um because I'd been to a performance poetry workshop some weeks before. Gosh, this is going back. I did quite enjoy performing. That's probably what pushed me into sort of doing the stand-up comedy later on, which I also enjoyed doing. But the because I I liked that standing on stage. I got something out of that. I quite enjoyed that. Did the audience get anything out of it? They they liked it. And the the poet who led the workshop, who then seemed to be running the night. Did he have his own name or was he going I can't remember his name? I remember his poem that he sort of like tried to sort of tell us what how performance poetry works was it's less about the the sort of the content of the poem doesn't matter as much as how the word you know, the sort of like things like alliteration, the sound, you know, and and the I don't think I like the sound of it. No, but his his his example was his poem was called Ruth on the Roof. I remember that. Ruth on the Roof. And he said it doesn't there's nothing it doesn't make sense when it was just me him saying lots of words that sounded a bit like roof and roof and I'd have to say, I'll lay my cards on the table and say it's not for me, but I do want you to know uh that Summerfield were acquired by the co-op group in 2009. Oh, come on, they're still going, obviously. They're still very much going. Yeah. Yeah. Although the bank did get into trouble. They were propped up by their uh funeral business. Funeral business. That's that's where it's at for the co-op. And I'm I'm a big fan of the co-op. Don't I don't want you to get me wrong on that. And Safeway were bought by Morrisons. Safeway were bought by Morrisons. Shall we get with a show then? I

Welcome And The Classroom Register

5:40

think that would be a lovely idea. So welcome to Ben and James, could do better. Yes, and this is normally when I say um we certainly could do, but you know what? I think we're making some progress. I think we've got to be positive sometimes, you know? I mean I I know you think I'm a bit grumpy, so today I'm Well, actually, I think most people would accuse me of being the grumpy one of the two of us. In the operation. In the operation. Well, in just in life generally, I am generally regarded as a more miserable personality than you. Are you gonna do the register or am I doing the register? Which one do you prefer? No, I want to do the register because I'm I'm really sort of looking forward to what language you're going to use this time. So uh class, are we all settled? Yes. I'm here, I'm your teacher. And I'm speaking in a rather silly voice that sometimes makes it sound in a secondary school like we're talking to people who perhaps have only just sprung from the womb. But I might then say James.

Esperanto And El Dorado Memories

6:30

Jess, mi Esther Gitti. Sorry, have we gone to Cuba or something? Uh Esperanto. Esperanto. Esperanto. I thought there was a song. No, Esperanto. Esperanto. No? No, Esperanto is a made-up language. Uh it's not spoken by the Daleks or something, is it? No, no, no, no, no. It was a there was a no, have you not heard of this? Okay. So it was uh somebody invented a language uh combining elements of lots of other languages in order to create a language that the whole world would one day speak. And it's called Esperanto, but actually it didn't catch on. It just made me think of El Dorado. Yeah, no, it just made you think of El Dorado. I always think of Esperanto and El Dorado is Do you remember Eldorado? Oh, El Dorado. Um for me, I I thought you know things were difficult in my life when because I was when I say forced, I mean I don't cast aspersions on my parents, but you know, we we had a dose of East Enders every time it was on, and to watch that. We then did see Howard's Way. I like the theme tune by Simon May. There's the link to East Enders for you, same composer. You learn everything, don't you? Learn things with me, don't you? I do, I I I yeah. Uh also he did write the holiday theme tune. The Simon May there. Simon May. And I believe Simon May also wrote the theme tune to El Dorado. Which was a good theme tune, to be fair. I'm gonna check that, but I want you to tell us a bit about your memories of El Dorado because I I'm struggling to remember it in in some respects. Are you able to give us any No, no, I mean I I think it was I I didn't really watch it. I I remember it being a big thing though. It was announced it was a lot, a big promotional campaign. The the BBC, they went all in on it, didn't they? They really thought people were gonna take it to their heart and people were gonna watch this uh soap opera set in the sun, but they didn't, and no one watched it, and it it just unfolded after a year, didn't it? It was cancelled. Simon May. It is Simon May. I was right, I was right to cite Simon May, the composer of the EastEnders theme tune, which uh Anita Dobson uh did sing. Anyone can fall in love. Correct. Yeah, you really are improving your musical ability. This is very good. Oh no, I've always known that. I've always known that anyone can fall in love. How its way. Well, you really brought that home to me. Yeah, yeah. So it was a sort of basso profundo voice there for you. I don't think I watched Howard's Way, but I do remember the theme tune. And then holiday paying powerful stuff. It's powerful stuff, very much D10, Roland D10 sort of sounds in there, or the Roland Juno might have been employed. There might well have been, you know, some eight or sixteen track uh stuff there. But I want you to know in relation to the El Dorado theme tune, composed by the British songwriter Simon May, uh he he didn't just create a tune, he created a tune by reworking an earlier song he had written called When You Go Away. Uh, not immediately catchy, but then again we can't really accuse him of not writing catchy things. When You Go Away, yeah. So he reworked When You Go Away, adding Spanish guitars and an upbeat orchestral arrangement to fit the show's expat setting in Spain. Uh you can listen to the instrumental version for those who are interested on Spotify uh whilst you're downloading obviously previous uh editions of Ben and James Could Do Better. And you can read more about Simon May's work on his uh official website, SimonMay.com. Marvellous. We're about to talk about one of the things that I've been up to this week. Right. Uh please too. Have you been up to anything this week, though, before you get onto that? Uh I've been sorry, it was SimonMay.co.uk. I don't want listeners rushing to the SimonMay.com site. I need to find that. It's Look, I I've been having to sort of try and get to grips with uh pulling together a programme of study. So I think we'll just say that's been interesting. I'm glad you're enjoying that. And

Rebuilding The Podcast Website And Blog

10:31

you? Well, talking of websites, actually, uh I've been doing a lot of work on the Ben and James Could Do Better website. Right. So I don't know if you recall, because we talked about uh the social media strategy, which um sort of died a little bit of a death. When we first started the the podcast, I I started a lot of social media campaigns simultaneously. Yeah. You you went sort of it was almost as if there'd been some sort of short circuit. Yeah. In your electronic system. I was really keen to promote the show, but realised I'd overextended myself, so you kind of ditched some of the uh initiatives. Yes, because you st you started sort of you were almost baying for blood. You you were saying things like, I need I need content, maybe. We didn't necessarily like all of the content we were putting out there. I think it's fair to say one of the things I jettisoned quite early was the I I jettisoned the Twitter page, or the Twitter, the well, the the X. We don't like it, do we? Didn't like it, didn't we know how to do it? The other thing was uh uh the blog. Uh so I set up a blog and then uh felt fruitless to me, but you No, I I enjoy a blog. I I I I I have had a blog of my own for many years. Uh picked up a few followers. I I you know you not not not big numbers, it doesn't matter. But I enjoyed I enjoy updating a blog. So I thought I'd enjoy it. Did it for you, yeah. I I did do it for me. I thought I might enjoy updating a Ben and James blog for us. And then I just sort of didn't because it was there was lots of other things to do. Uh but I've gone back to it and I've been updating it. Um so there's now content on the blog, which people can follow if they'd like, or if they don't want to, that's absolutely fine too. But if you'd like to see some of the postcards that I've alluded to. Oh yes, please. Uh well, you don't want to see them. We know that. You've made that your feelings abundantly clear. But people who've been listening might think it's all very well and good you're talking about these postcards. There's no visual there's no visual, it's quite a visual medium. So I And some podcasts, you know, do have little things you can download and yeah. So well now you can go and visit our blog. Visual guide if you like. You can now go and visit our blog, Ben and Jamescoulddo Better.com. So I uh uh Well and uh Yeah, a bit confusing because obviously I said Simonmay.com and it isn't it's Simonmay.co.uk. So for us, ours is a dot com, just to be clear. Ben and James.com, that's takes you to the blog, which has all links to the sh show as well. Well obviously that would be stupid just to have a blog that doesn't link to anything else. So if you are listening to this but don't know how to find this show, which would be a strange thing to not know because you found it because you're listening to it, and you want to find the blog, Ben and JamesCoddo Better.com. And then on that blog now.com, you will now see some posts written by me with some images, and that would include the postcards that we've talked about, including the one I'm going to talk about now. Well, this is fantastic news because I didn't even know that had happened. Well, no, it's uh it has happened this week. Thanks so much. Thank you on behalf of everybody. The week that precedes this episode going out. I spent a lot of time on that blog. Gosh, you kept that really quiet. I did, I did. That brings us on to this week's postcard, which will obviously feature you'll be able to see this now, not just hear about it, which is exciting news. We won't see it now. Well, no, the listeners They will see it now. They could click on well. By the time this episode has been edited, painstakingly edited by me and put out onto the Oh, you've spoken for hours, why can't you just shut up? It's your own advice. You're not following it. So that's hilarious for hours, that's the only problem. It's difficult to know what to cut sometimes. It's uh not that difficult. I find it quite easy.

The Postcard Message And Surfing Sun

13:51

The postcard this week is a picture of a sun, as in, you know, the not someone's sun, the sun, the the the great gaseous ball of flames that you know brings all the energy and life to the world. Yeah, and that sun riding a surfboard. Solar radiation, and it says happiness comes in waves. Oh, lovely. Can I have a look at that? It will find you again. Happiness comes in waves, it will find you again. That's an optimistic message. Yes, you can have a look at that if you'd like to. Thank you. Yeah, well, I I I'm going to just look at it if I can, just for a moment. Just happiness. Looks like a tidal wave behind us, no? Behind the sun. Which doesn't normally bring great joy with it, but um, it does look like a massive wall of water. Behind the sun. On a surfboard, yeah. Wouldn't that if the sun was that close to I mean, I'm no scientist. No, I think that's becoming abundantly clear as you talk, but uh But if the sun was that close to that water, wouldn't it just evaporate? Yes. Yes it would. I'm glad you didn't go down the other direction of wouldn't that water extinguish the sun? No, no, I wasn't. I I I I'm not that. But no, I I like that, and thank you. Thank you for sharing that. That was the first one you've liked in a few weeks. That's quite nice. Uh I'm not saying I No, I I don't mind it. I don't mind it. But I know you don't really approve of this item. No, that you could give. That you could give to some not a student, but that you could give. Well you could actually, because it's not look, we're going to reward all of our listeners with a visual of that postcard. Yeah. And some written content. So there you go. Thank you for the ice cream. Yeah, well, I want you to I want you to actually unveil that because it's

Galaxy Ice Cream Taste Test

15:32

tiny, isn't it? It is tiny. It's a galaxy vanilla and chocolate ice cream. The chocolate's the outer coating, and the vanilla's presumably the ice cream. Yeah, and as you unwrap that and maybe do a little taste test for us, because we've turned into a sort of some sort of food. Well, no, highly processed food. Usually, sort of review show. That's good though, I like that. It's quite nice, isn't it? It's quite a sort of it's the ridge, if you'll pardon the phrase, in the middle, isn't it? Yeah. It's a sort of a pure galaxy in the middle. I like that. I like um I like a Mars ice cream. Yeah, but I think that's got a bit more class to it. And I I started to eat those in my short time in Qatar. Uh-huh. That's where that's where I developed something of a taste for the galaxy ice cream. Something of a penchant for it. Could you translate penchant? Ponchon. I um not. I'll put you right on the spot. Well, I mean I just used the word ponchon. Uh so I don't think it was a yeah, I didn't know what penchant meant, um, other than a bit of a liking for something, I suppose. I don't think there's a direct translation word for it. So I mean we managed just in that introduction, along with the motorbite and the background because the windows are open to allow a bit of air into the room. We managed to do a food. He's very keen, isn't he? He's very keen. He's gone, he's gone now. I think that's the just eat driver uh, you know, who whizzed around with the with the ice creams. But uh yeah, I mean we managed what I was gonna say is we managed to do a food review, a sort of um bit of ambient noise, talk about some obscure aspect of my life all sort of rolled into one. So but I like I like that it's nice to see you smile. It's a rarity these days, I like the Mars ice cream.

Aldi Copycats Beer And Crisp Truths

17:31

Yeah, but what I quite like is the Aldi ripoff of the Mars ice cream. The Titan the Titan ice cream. Do you think that rivals it or does it taste different? No, I think it's identical, really. Um the the Titan bar is is a solid replication of the Mars bar. And I like what I like about Aldi, more so than Lidl, who also do rip-off versions of popular products, household name products, but with Liddle they just sort of copy them, but they give them a their own name. Whereas what Aldi do is they they sort of take the name of the original product and and sort of give it a name that's that's quite similar. So um for example, Titan, obviously there's a sort of that's a moon around I want to say Jupiter. Yeah, you've got me there. Um but it's it's you know celestial body, none of Mars, isn't it? Yeah. Uh so that's what they've done there. And uh But then there's a lot of weird brands like sort of morning sunrise and yeah, that that kind of stuff, isn't there? I mean uh th there's all there's often brand names that but uh they i the if you look closely, the ones that look like products that have names and untwined on the shelves of the more established supermarkets. No, I mean Aldi's pretty established, so I don't want to Yeah, I don't think we need to sort of call their veracity into question. But they um there was um so I mean obviously the the now sort of fairly defunct brew dog brewery. They still exist. I mean you can still buy brew dog beers in in Supermarket. But brew dog's not brew dog anymore, isn't it? I think it's it's in administration. Um they should launch a beer that that's called that, maybe. Well, no, so there's this thing between Audi and and brew dog. Um brew dog's most famous beer, if you like, and I'm you know, they're they're they're out of business though really, so there's no point advertising. Well, as I say, you can still buy their beer, so maybe maybe there's there's some hope for the the product if not the uh company. The company. Um but they're they're sort of you know their sort of signature, their flagship beer. It's called Punk, Punk IPA. Yes. And Aldi's version of that, which doesn't really isn't as good. And you know, I like a lot of Aldi products, but this this is not particularly a good beer. It's called anti-establishment IPA I see. I see what they've done there. Yeah, so there was a bit of a thing in the on on the social media between Brew Dog and um Audi, which resulted actually in Brew Dog brewing something called Audi Audi IPA. Oh right. With the I from Audi is there also the I from IPA, and you can now buy that in Audi. So there you go. They were rewarded for their uh flavorant. Do you know what I've I have thought though for many years, and this has been an opportunity for me to say it, they can't get the crisps right. No? No, well what's your well Mando, I don't think that any of the rip-off, whether it's the quavers, the frazzles, the well, any of them. They they don't taste quite the same. Whereas you can't say that about some of those other products. That's true. Now and and actually my daughters would agree with you on that. So I don't ever buy crisps from those places. No, especially if you if they're if they're the rip-off, yeah, because my children, particularly my youngest, Jemima, likes a hula hoop. Oh yeah, no, they're not the same. As she calls them oula oops. Oh, I like that. It's like the Renault advert. Yeah, I like uh uh papa, oula hoop. Gembiande's oula oops. Because uh mean her say her English is coming on, but oula. I mean, this is gonna be it's she we should get her into voiceover or something. Well, I think she's gonna be fantastic. She does speak English now but with a slight French accent, yeah. Um which is bizarre, she's never been to France. We've we've touched upon that. Potentially, potentially. But I bought on the on the cheap both Lidl fake hula hoops and Aldi fake hula hoops, and she was not having any of it. So they're not as good. Rejected, rejected. Would you like, would you like some hula hoops? And she's like, Yes, yes, please. Uh but they're not those ones. When I produced those, they were get returned to me. They were returned to sender uh almost instantly. So they're not as good. No, clearly. Um they're not. So is there anything else that your uh daughters have roundly rejected from uh the the ripoff ranges in in any of the uh now very successful almost eight percent share uh disruptor? Disruptive retailers. Are they disruptive? I I mean I quite like them, but they do, yes. Um no, I mean the the ooh oops uh were the the big do you think she should start her own brand out there, oohla oops. Just oohs, yeah. Yeah, which I think would be um would be something else. No, I don't think they've rejected anything else quite so I mean and you know uh there are things that that I actually actively would would seek out from uh an aldioridal. I think their confectionery is is quite strong. Um as I say, the Titan bars, etc. But no, just they they do they do some quite nice chocolates and stuff. Yeah, I I love what they've done with the with the the Dan pack. Uh the Dane pack becomes Nord Pack. That's exactly that sort of thing, yeah. Yeah, they they're very too much. Natalla is Natoka. It's like it's I really do that. No shame whatsoever. But there was um, and again I think this happened on social media, a little bit of a battle between Marks and Spencer's and Audi over the caterpillar cake. Now, this was an interesting one because um Marx and Spencer's have a firm favourite with the students I find. If there's um an end-of-term thing, they don't want me to go and get uh barrels of celebrations or whatever it is. They want the caterpillar cake, yeah. Now it's called Colin the Caterpillar in Marks and Spencer's. And I don't know what the Aldi, I can't remember, but there's been various, you know, the anyway. There's a bit of a thing of like, it's our pro you know, we own we own the Colin Colin the Caterpillar, so you shouldn't be doing this. But actually, that was quite a strange one to just sort of take issue with Aldi because the caterpillar cake, the chocolate caterpillar cake, you can basically find a supermarket version of that in every supermarket. So I don't think that was just Aldi. I think that everyone does that. And and even the sort of the there's a boy, one and a girl one from Martin Spencer's and in Tesco's there's a boy one and a girl one. So I mean I don't know why Martin Spencer's particularly went for Aldi have a reputation for sort of um shamelessly ripping off other retailers, but in in in the case of the caterpillar cake, I think they were quite hard done by. Have you ever had a bubbly mint? Bubbly mint? Yes. I mean that makes me think of a Mintero. It is, it's the Aldi version of brilliant. No, I've never had a bubbly mint. I have had a Mintero. Not a fan, really. No. I don't think chocolate should be green. And it is, isn't it? The inside of a Mintero is. Yeah, I I've never found that to be and yet I love a mint chocolate chip ice cream. Yeah, that's fine. But I don't I don't like a mint chocolate. No, and I don't like those fries bars which Boots used to push like they were going out of fashion as well, with a like a mint fondant. No, I don't mind a I don't I I do know those white mint fondant. It's too much fondant. I don't mind an after eight. Um at Christmas, I quite like an after eight. And I don't think you need to wait till eight o'clock to have one, but I do like an after eight, but I don't I think any more that's quite a slim uh chocolate with not a lot of cream, and I quite like that. But I think when the when the when the mint cream gets too thick, now I'm not interested. Um another little because I I'm really interested by our I do like a fries Turkish delight though. You've touched on Margaret Slade's favourite. You have? She's not got a weak spot for much, my mum. She certainly does go weak at the knees for a fries Turkish delight. For a fries Turkish delight, yeah. What I particularly like about a fries Turkish delight is if you ever have then have an actual Turkish delight, nothing like it. My dad used to have a bounty. I like a bounty. Dark chocolate or or or milk chocolate bounty? Oh, he's he wasn't particularly fussy, I don't I don't take it into the colour. Two schools of thought on that one, I was like, lost his taste in the end, but he still used to devour them. For you, would it be Kellogg's Crave or Harvest Moon Craze? See what they've done there? I do see what they've done. But uh No, I don't I don't like chocolate-filled cereal. No. It's uh cereal is I mean my my children might might be interested in either or both of those. Oh my ex-wife used to swear by the liqueur of skincare. I would say she's right. She's right too. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well that's another thing she was right about. Yeah, well. Uh but yeah. So okay, well I'll start. That's a note to self, isn't it? Yeah, I mean it's it's significantly cheaper and it does the job. I don't know about the skincare particularly, but I would say the cosmetic the um the sort of uh toiletries generally are pretty good uh from that route. Here's one for your daughter. Yeah. Shocker peanut buttercups. No, but that's Reese's pieces, isn't it? And I don't think she would like those. But Chocur as a chocolate brand, pretty good. Forget the Magnum ice cream and uh take on board your gelatelli classic ice cream sticks. Oh, I like those. Yeah. I have those. I buy those. Yeah. I actively like those. They're very half the m less than half the price. They're they're they're not as good as I'm they're not as good as the Magnum, but they're not they're they're not

Energy Drinks And The Quad Vod

27:11

half bad. I've turned my back on Red Bull, but I do sometimes like a drink to stimulate me, you know, particularly at this sort of hour. Can't stomach it personally. So for me, uh it's out with the Red Bull. Uh if I pass an LD, it's it's a red thunder. And uh I think going one better, if I pass a little and I nip in, I can help myself to a Kong Strong. I'm going to need repeat that please. A Kong Strong. Kong. Kong. Kong. As in King Kong. As in King Kong, Kong Strong. Well, he's got the energy, hasn't he? Oh. See what they've done there. So one brand has gone for quite a funny Kong Strong. I like that actually. And the other market leading disruptor brand has gone for Red Thunder. Which I love also, actually. I prefer both of those to Red Bull. Yes. And don't forget Astas in here, who were cited as one of the reasons Crooks went down the old plug hole. Yeah. Yeah. With their blue bolt. Blue bolt. Just a different colour. But I've noticed the price of blue bolt hasn't half gone up. Has that gone up as well? Mmm. I mean I I I've not been able to drink any of these energy drinks. Are you not one of these? Oh, it keeps me up all night. No. Because I drink I can drink a massive amount of it and go straight to sleep. Well, they're not going to want to hear from me, are they? Because this completely disproves. Back in the um late nineties, early noughties, I think late nineties actually for this one. I used to like a drink. I think you've uh you've accused me of that on this podcast before, and I did. You do like it. And these days I I'm a bit more discerning and I like to drink things I like the taste of. Yeah. Mainly sort of various sort of craft beers, topics. Kraft beers. Anything that tastes of lemons, I find. Well, I I like it. You you don't, but I I I don't. That's a whole other but back in the in the late 90s, my my main reason for drinking was to get drunk. It's not big and it's not clever, but you weren't role modelling back in those days. I wasn't really a role model, no, and I was probably easily influenced. But I used to drink too much. Uh binge drinking was a big thing back then, of course. I don't think it's quite quite what it was then. I think it's that sort of not as big a which is probably a good thing for for our society. But back in the late 90s, drinking to excess, well, it wasn't just me doing it. There was quite a lot of in order to speed up the process of me and my friend, we liked a Red Bull and vodka. Yeah, yeah, I'm I used to like that, yeah. But um, anyhow, because you had the stimulant and the and the alcohol combined, it was kind of you know, it would we would fuel things up, but we then decided what would be a clever idea would be to put four shots of vodka in a pint glass and then top up the pint glass with Red Bull, and we called it the quad vod. This is only you. I don't know if other people did it, but we did this. These were in the days of irresponsible drinking and and the the dawn of alcohol pops, wasn't it? Yeah, it was well it was I think the alcohols had become quite established even then. And we we did this, and uh, I think one night we might have done more than one of those. So we the thing with that was it wouldn't hit you. The impact of it wouldn't hit you straight away. So and I quite liked the taste of Red Bull back then. I we did a I think maybe two or three pints of this concoction, but I uh since that day have not been able to drink or or tolerate the taste of Red Bull, and in fairness, it wasn't Red Bull's fault. So you think you'd actually vomit if you had Red Bull or Red Thunder or Red Bolt? I'm fine with vodka. I mean, obviously, I I'm quite sure you've worked in a pub at some point, have you?

Pub Stories And Old School Orders

30:44

Uh no, I've never worked on a pub actually. I did, I did. I pull pints at the Three Arches pub. Yeah, I know, had at one of the longest bars in Europe. Still trading? Still trading, yeah, still trading. It's a brains brewery. Uh don't forget it's brains you want. Do you like a brains SA? Yeah, skullattack. Skullattack, and it does give you a bit of anger. Oh, but they used to say in Cardi if it didn't travel very well. Used to say it didn't travel very well the essay. I don't know why they'd say that. But why were they why were they worried about where it was travelling? As long as it had travelled to the cellar of the pub they were in and it was coming up the lines into their glass. Why were they bothered about whether it was how it got there or whether it travelled or doesn't travel very well? I'm quite sure I had a brain's essay in Leicester and it was fine. It was fine, it was absolute nonsense. But then you'd have these people who go um they'd go nuts if you got a fresh glass. No, in there, in there. What? Yeah. In there. In there, mate. What's the matter with you? Sheer nonsense. Absolutely unbelievable, isn't it? But they did if you were working in the lounge, uh, you would sometimes get people asking you for a whiskey and pep. A whiskey. Well, that shows you how old I am. And how old these people were. And they say a whiskey and pep. That's Pepsi, presumably. Uh yeah, I think it was. I don't think it meant Dr. Pepper, because I could have said, well, do you want to substitute it for a Professor Peppy? Oh dear, where's the Pepper? Or for a Dr. Bright. So where's you shouldn't laugh at your own joke, should you? No, but where's Professor Pepper? Are they real? They are real. That's good. Which one's which? Aldi's the Professor Peppy. Right, that makes sense. And uh Asta, a running Dr. Bright. I'm disappointed in Asta there really. All they've done is just copy the Doctor, which I don't think I mean it could have been I mean it that could be something for your ear or something, couldn't it? So I nearly choked on uh on a Neo there. A Neo, I've I've had a Neo. That's that's that's how deep. An Oreo. Yes. Yeah, just but I I I I did I moved away from the microphone to eat it, but then I I nearly choked on her. Tell you what doesn't work is the Oreo ice cream. It's absolutely awful. So that's the two biscuits with the ice cream as the cream. Yeah, but the the biscuit then is it's not no crunch to it. It's absolutely awful. I think it's a real low point in there. I think if we have listeners, and and the statistics say we have some. It's like dust. I think I think in between two. That might be the first statement you've made that might get a reaction out of the listeners. I think people do like the Oreo ice cream. Hmm. So No, no, I'm not talking about the sort of rip-off Oreo ice cream that you can get in KFC and things. That's quite nice. I'm not talking about a crushums. No, no, I I know you're on about the biscuit with the ice cream and the biscuits. No, it's awful. I think people like it. Uh but obviously somebody like it. They're not going to keep manufacturing it. Nobody likes it. People are quite passionate about it. Well, I'm sorry about that. Well, anyway, um next time I'll just have a creamy split pot. Regular listeners will probably think we're a little bit obsessed with confectionery. Well, we are. And large retailers.

Listener Feedback Lists And Goodbye

33:54

Well, that's the that's the sound of uh the bell, which means we've come to the end of the episode. Yeah, and I think it's been it's been a lovely episode in the fact that I think for the first time since we started this wonderful project, we've just spent time Well we always spend time talking to each other, that's the whole nature of a podcast, isn't it? And inflicting that on on the listeners. But what I've really enjoyed about this is we've we've meandered through memory lane, we've found out a bit more about each other and our backgrounds and do you know what? We never really got to a list, did we? Well no. Uh it's an unusual gambit. Uh it's the sort of format with only part of the format show. You know, time will tell if this is sustainable. Well, I don't think it's sustainable, but I think it was quite good as a sort of one As a one shot. As a one-shot wonder. Well, who's to say we're not to judge whether it's a wonder, but uh or whether it was a one shot into the dark. Well, we will know sooner. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know either. But you you you in your formats, you you just remind me of the last episode about that brave man who'd left. Left left his job in industry. Took a 75% pay cut pay cut, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And literally changed the lives of yeah. So this new format, it's all very well you scoffing. This new format with only part of a format could well be like what you would be like if I let you drop a book at a hundred pages. Not you don't want to carry on, so you don't carry. Just let us choose. And let's let let's let the listeners choose. If they say, for God's sake, bring back the format, then we won't be doing it again, will we? I mean, if we've still got any listeners after that, I I will be you know, I'd like them to choose. Do you like there's something quite good about meandering through? Oh well, I love a good meander, as you know. And never getting to the point. And it's long form, long form. Yeah, I know I I enjoy meandering without any real reason to be talking. Well, I think we've delivered on that, haven't we? We we have, and uh you know, I'm not sure we've even touched upon did we even manage to touch upon anything to do with secondary education in that episode. Don't think so, and that's why I like it. No, I mean it's a good, it's a nice break, isn't it? From that. So I don't mind that. I mean, I'm not saying. I just feel we may have missold a product here. I I have enough faith in our listener to know that old joke again. That old joke, you know, might object too strongly, but yeah. No, but I no, I I have faith in our listeners that they will have invested something in us over. I mean, for goodness sake, Paul loves uh you know, eight or nine ten, ten. Okay, I can't not keep in can. No, eleven. Sorry, ten, ten, ten episodes prior to this episode. Yeah. So eleven. Goodness me. Goodness me, uh. I would say it's flown by, but it hasn't. Well I know this one's um uh I think that's one of your major concerns, actually, uh, that it hasn't flown by. But I think this the edited version of this will fly by for the listeners, and I think they're gonna be begging for more of it. And it might be something that I don't know, perhaps perhaps it's something we do every Roman numeral five podcasts, maybe. A bit like the Star Trek sort of uh make a good one then a bad one. Yeah, it's it's almost like it's almost been like our Netflix special. Well, yeah. It was quite special. And I can assure our listeners they won't have to beg for more content. Indeed. Uh they're getting it anyway, aren't they? Whether they want it or not, they're getting it. Uh it's it's it's then there'll be another episode next week. Will somebody send one of these to somebody in an influential position, do you think, who says I love the sound of this. Perhaps not this one, you know. Uh but it could be this one. Could be this one, but maybe How do you know? I don't know. And I mean you know, there's I'm just saying, you know, if you episode five, six, they were quite good. Eight was alright. You know, give that one, give that one a try. If you can afford it on, you know. Yeah. You know, and those wouldn't be where I'd start. I mean, you didn't think eight was gonna be any good. I didn't, and it it's alright. I like eight. I like eight. I might like this one. I might like this one. I think you will. I think we do. And on that note, I think we're gonna wish. I never did get around to reading that Tom Hanks short story, you know. No, but I think we need to promise. Can you even remember what it was called? No, I don't for some reason I just had Escape from Sobbybor in my mind. That was more to do with it. Trying to bring this to an end, I think. I didn't read it and I can't remember what it was called, so uh that's a bit that's a bit of if anyone did read it, can you remind me what it was called? And then Costas. Somebody going around Costas. Was it any good? Did you read it, listeners? If you listened to more than one episode. Did you listen to Did you listen to last week and did you read that book, that short story? Because if you did, we'd really love to hear from you. And we'd like a percentage of the blinking book sales as well. And also, if you've just found a list, because we forgot the list this week and we need a list. And yeah, please get us a list for next time. Otherwise, you're gonna get more of this. Do we want more of this? I would like it, but you uh I'm sensing don't. If you would like more of this, don't send a list. If you'd like more lists, send a list. Send a list, I think. I mean it's it's it's as simple as that. It's as simple as that. And whilst you're at it, get that little short story from Tom Hanks. If you do nothing else, read the short story by Tom Hanks and just let me know. I don't think there's anything left to say. I'm just gonna now say goodbye. Goodbye.